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and cummin, while they fhamefully forgot the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith; but our Saviour well determines upon it, Thefe ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. The fmaller matters of religion, the ceremonies, the outward circumftances, and every injunction of it, ought to be carefully obferved; but furely the argument holds much stronger for the obfervance of fuch precepts as tend to inward and univerfal holiness. There is no compofition to be expected, we must be good to the utmost of our power in every thing, or, like the corrupt defective Scribes and Pharifces, we fhall never enter into the kingdom of God.

CHA P. XI.

Of caufeless Anger, and of fcornful and cenforious Language.

MATTH. V. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

Te have heard, that it was faid by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill: and whofoever Shall kill, fhall be in danger of the Judg

ment.

But I fay unto you, That whofoever is angry with his brother without a caufe, shall be in danger of the judgment: and whofoever Shall fay to his brother, Raca, shall be in

danger

danger of the council: But whosoever shall fay, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adverfary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him: left at any time the adverfary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be caft into prifon.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou haft paid the uttermoft farthing.

O

UR Lord having in the former para graph declared, that fuch as would be his Difciples, muft practife a more excellent and refined morality, than the Jewish doctors taught, and carry the precepts and prohibitions of the law of God beyond the then received interpretations of them, proceeds to give an inftance in the matter of the fixth commandment. The Jews understood by it, no more than what the letter of the precept forced them to acknowledge, a prohibition from murder, but he extends it to the forbidding of all fuch illgovern'd paffions, and provoking behaviour, as were the principles, and might prove the occafions of murder. Let us fuppofe our Saviour to have express'd himself after the following manner.

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"MURDER ye know to be forbidden by the "law under the pain of death, the judgment u"fually inflicted for fuch a crime. But the com"miffion of murder, and the actual fhedding of "blood, is far from being all that is reftrained by "this commandment. For I, who am fent from "heaven as an authentick interpreter of the divine "laws, declare to you, that whofoever indulges "himself in rafh, unreasonable, or exceffive anger, is "in the eye of God guilty of a capital crime. "And whofoever proceeds farther, to scornful and " contemptuous language, is ftill a more heinous of"fender, and worthy of a more fevere punishment "than an ordinary death, even as a council ufes to "be held amongst you for the punishment of no"torious malefactors, when the common methods "of juftice are thought too mild and gentle for "their crimes. And he who gives his tongue the "liberty of reviling, is ftill more odious to God, and "worthy of the moft dreadful feverities that can be "inflicted upon him. If therefore, when you come "to pay your devotions to Almighty God, ye remem"ber, ye have been in any of these kinds injurious "to your neighbour, go firft and reconcile your "felves to him, and then return and finish your "devotions; which then, and not till then, will "be acceptable. Make up the matter in time with "your adverfary, whileft it may be made up, be"fore the caufe comes to be heard; left being caft

ye be committed to prifon, from whence ye "must not expect to be releafed without fuffering "the utmost rigour of the law, whatever it be.

IN explaining of this paragraph farther, I will not trouble you with a critical account of the three degrees of punishment, referred to in verse 22. It will be enough to obferve, that by fuch an allufion our Saviour fignifies to us, that even caufelefs anger is a fin, contemptuous language a greater, and

cenforious

cenforious reviling yet worfe; and that accordingly a punishment proportionable to the degrees of guilt, is referved for each of these by the judgment of God, as well as for the groffer acts of murder. The precept therefore, as it is here refined upon and enlarged, extends,

I. To the moderating of anger.

II. To the restraining all fcornful and contemptuous language, and all flanderous and vile reflections.

III. To the obliging us, when we have done an injury, to repair it as well as we can, and to folicit a reconciliation as foon as is poffible.

LET us confider thefe diftinctly.

I. I begin with the firft, the rules to be observed for duly moderating our anger. It was never the defign of the chriftian religion to root out human paffions; they being effential to our very nature, we are not men without them; but to reduce them to their true ufe, and confine them within due bounds. The motions of fear and love, of joy and grief, of complacency and anger, are not evil in themselves, but as we use them: Let them be governed by the law of God, and by the rules of reafon, and they are as innocent as any other faculty of the rational foul, and every way as fubfervient and neceffary to the ends of virtue. But if we let them loose, they will certainly drive us before them, as their flaves, to all manner of fin and extravagance; then the law of God will be trampled upon, reafon will be over-born; the peace of our own minds, and the good order of all about us will be deftroy'd. It is highly requifite, therefore, to keep a ftrait rein upon our paffions, that we may govern them, and not they us; which, in the cafe I am now particularly fpeaking of, I fuppofe to be the meaning of St,

P 3

Paul's

Paul's advice, * Be ye angry, and fin not. He fuggefts indeed, that there is fomething of difficulty in being angry and innocent together; because the corruptions of our nature have given our paffions that command over us, which nothing but the grace of God, and our own vigorous endeavours can reftrain; yet certainly, he fuppofes it to be poffible, or elfe the direction would be abfurd. And that we may thus preferve our innocence, it concerns us carefully to look to it, that the caufe, the meafure, and the continuance of our anger be under due prescription.

(1.) FIRST then, we must not be without angry a great and just provocation. I take it for granted, that there are warrantable causes of anger, and that anger is not forbidden where the occafions are juft. But fince it is natural to us all, when we are moved to think, with peevish Jonah, that we do well to be angry; let us confider a little, what thofe occafions are, which really will or will not, juftify our being fo. One rule I am fure we may depend upon, that whatever refentments proceed from PRIDE, or from exorbitant SELF-LOVE, are utterly unlawful; for thefe are principles corrupt and vicious in themselves, and who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And hence we must conclude against all refentments of neglect, contradiction, perfonal contempt, and other the like affronts, whether real or imaginary: Except where the authority of a parent, a mafter, or a magiftrate is infulted; and then indeed for the fake of natural reverence and political order, contempts become juft occafions of anger, and ought to be refented. But when the offence is merely perfonal (especially if the importance of it is not great) humility and meckness ought to govern, and all should be pass'd

* Eph iv. 6.

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